Meet the Musicians: Mae Lin

By Andrew Stiefel

Seattle Symphony First Violin Mae Lin loves going on adventures with her husband, Brett, and dog, Scotch.

Mae Lin met her husband — and adopted her dog — on the same day. “Our mutual friends set up a blind date for us, they thought we would like each other,” explains Mae. “But Brett didn’t live in Seattle at the time, he was in medical school, so we did long distance until he moved to Seattle.”

Earlier that same day she brought home her dog, a West Highland White Terrier she named Scotch. “He’s super cute,” laughs Mae. “But he’s also a stubborn little dog. He’s an old soul in a puppy body. We joke that if he could speak, he would sound like Sean Connery.”

Now, three and a half years later, Mae, Brett and Scotch live together in Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood. Mae and Brett celebrated their wedding this past summer. “Now we like to go on adventures together, looking for the best donuts in town or taking Scotch to the arboretum,” smiles Mae.

If you’re wondering, Mae says that Capitol Hill’s Raised Doughnuts is their favorite. “A lot of it is flavor for me, but I like the texture. I like it to be kind of fluffy and not too sweet.”

Mae is a local expert — she grew up in Bellevue before moving to New York. After finishing school, she says that “it was my dream to come back to Seattle. My family was here, it’s beautiful. I wanted to be in the Seattle Symphony.”

Eleven years after winning the audition, Mae still looks forward to every concert, often looking for familiar faces in the audience each week.

“As a society we're looking to make so many things faster and easier these days, but this, there's no shortcut to the music that we make on stage,” she reflects. “I think it’s amazing that what we do is so enduring, that making music together for our community is still so important.”